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It was just over eight years ago that I decided to ruin a perfectly good summer by running for the Washington State Legislature. Yes, for a brief period, I was a politician. I never got used to the idea even though for the previous decade I had decided that I would run for office at some point in the future. My opportunity came in 2002 when, after a redistricting shuffle,...

I want my next move to be by bicycle. Crazy? Not at all. Thanks to impressive new bicycle trailer designs, such a move is now possible. So are other, similarly audacious feats of human-powered hauling, from freighting fish to delivering mattresses. (More on that in a moment.) In 1981, when I left for college, (almost) everything I owned fit in a backpack, a trombone case, and an airline bike box....

I broke my ankle three weeks ago. And no, it wasn’t undertaking some spectacular athletic feat. It was a simple trip and fall at home. But now that I’m on crutches, I’ve had the opportunity to see what it’s like to be disabled. I am fortunate, obviously, because my bones will heal, and soon I’ll be up and about. But along with a new found gratitude for simply being able...

Energy efficiency retrofits can be “small stuff but with big, big, big, big savings,” said Vice-President Joe Biden this morning. He was announcing that Seattle, Portland, and Eugene are among the recipients of sought-after federal money for energy efficiency retrofits. It was a better-than-usual speech for this kind of thing. In particular, Biden did a good job of underscoring that efficiency is “a triple win”—good for household budgets, the environment, and for...

If you lived in the Northwest during the early 1990s, you probably remember the so-called “timber wars” when the logging industry clashed with conservationists who wanted to halt the cutting of old-growth forests. Among the arguments made by industry was that limits on cutting would result in economic hardship in rural areas. And indeed, at about the same time that limits were imposed on federal land, unemployment really did rise in some...

Last weekend I spent some time at home recovering from some oral surgery. It was a welcome respite that allowed me to catch up on some of my favorite television shows, including PBS’ Nova.  I downloaded the first of a series called “Becoming Human: Unearthing Our Earliest Ancestors.”  The series tries to answer one of the most fascinating questions of evolutionary science: How did apes evolve into human beings and...

I remember the first time I drove into Vancouver in the late 1980s. Interstate 5 melted away into Highway 99 and eventually, I crossed over the Oak Street Bridge into a four lane city street with no turn lanes. How odd that the freeway didn’t just plow through the city with convenient exits at strategic points. What were they thinking? Instead, it was a game of trying to pick the...

Ripples, and sometimes waves, of the economic tsunami continue to roil through cities across the United States. One product of the downturn is stalled real estate projects. Many shelved projects have left vacant lots, derelict buildings, or parking lots where housing or office space was planned. The need to put these spaces back into use has motivated some great thinking about how to integrate open space and farming into the...

A study published in the Journal of Urban Economics  uses a model that combines residential density, driving and gasoline consumption that confirms something that most of us already suspect: sprawl means fewer transportation choices, more time sitting in our cars, more of our incomes spent on gas, and less time for other, more important stuff like family and friends. So, even if it’s true that people in areas that are...

Two stories in the news today are on a topic near to my heart: public art. Before exercising great restraint in sharing his encyclopedic knowledge of Sound Transit construction methods, Seattle Times reporter Mike Lindblom offers a fun preview of the space-age art that will greet Beacon Hill boarders as they wait for their ride. Video of the Hubble Space Telescope, subliminal messages, purple starfish, green jellyfish, stars on the...